Examining the Memorability of Faces through Face Features

Face and feature memorability serve an important role in understanding the complexities of human social interaction. The present study explored which facial features are most recognizable when a target face is rapidly presented for 200 ms. Exploratory analyses aimed to establish whether the facial features from target faces with the highest accuracy in a feature recognition task (Study 1A) were also the features most salient to participants in a check-box description task (Study 1B). Results from the recognition task indicated that participant accuracy across all features examined was significantly better than chance, and was highest for eyes, mouth, and eyebrows. Correlational results comparing the relationship between recognition accuracy and the saliency of features in a description task demonstrated that the relationship between the two is loosely connected. Taken together, these results provide a foundational framework from which to expand the understanding of feature recognition.